Residents working flat out to recycle their waste

Residents living in Bryant Street, Chatham are doing their bit for the environment by using a new scheme to recycle their household waste. Medway Council’s Waste Minimisation Team has been working with housing landlord mhs homes and caretaker Dave Roberts to ensure people living in the high-rise flats are able to recycle their household waste through the kerbside collections. Recyclable items such as newspaper, metal food and drinks cans, plastic and glass bottles, can now be placed in the blue recycling containers, which are collected during the fortnightly recycling collections. Since the scheme was introduced six weeks ago, residents have recycled 1.6 tonnes of waste. Residents Anna Szmajduch and Peter Cole celebrated the launch by winning a goodie bag containing a £10 book token and recycled stationary after winning a competition set by the Waste Minimisation Team. Mr Cole said: “Dave is a great caretaker and has worked really hard to get this scheme off the ground. He makes sure the recycling containers are placed outside the bin stores first thing in the morning and locked away last thing at night so people can fill up the blue bags with the recyclable waste. “I am really pleased I can now recycle my waste as it is something I have been asking for nearly five years. I filled up a couple of blue sacks with paper when the scheme started. It’s important the everyone does their bit to help the environment.” Mr Roberts added: “A lot of residents have been asking for a recycling facility for many years. I never thought it would happen, but everyone has worked hard to ensure that the people living in these flats are able to recycle their waste and do their bit for the environment.” All flats are different in their design so officers from the Waste Minimisation Team are visiting all of the 13,000 flats in Medway to assess which recycling system will work best for them. Medway Council’s Portfolio Holder for Front Line Services Cllr Phil Filmer said: “This is a fantastic achievement and the residents, Waste Minimisation Team and mhs homes should feel incredibly proud of their hard work. “Bryant Street is the first block of flats with this arrangement, while mhs Melville court in Brompton and Medway Council’s Tintagel flats in Gillingham have a unique bespoke collection scheme to accommodate the design and layout of the buildings. “Medway Council is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to recycling facilities and these new services give everyone the opportunity to ensure their recyclable waste doesn’t end up in a landfill site.” Anyone who lives in a block of flats and does not have access to Medway Council’s kerbside recycling service should phone Customer First on 01634 333333 to arrange a site visit.